


and once you are awake

by ottermo



Series: As Prompted [2]
Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-06-06 05:56:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6741361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ottermo/pseuds/ottermo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fills 1-3 for 'the' Humans fanwork challenge on tumblr. (Charging/Rebirth/Awake)</p>
            </blockquote>





	and once you are awake

**Author's Note:**

> if you follow me on tumblr, you've probably already been subjected to these, I'm just transferring them to here because my ao3 account was looking annoyingly under-representative of the amount of Humans obsessing I do on a daily basis. The first few fills are just little drabble-esque things that I'll lump together in groups - slightly longer stuff comes later :-)

 

 

**charging**

If charging is something like sleeping, then it brings with it something like a dream; something whispered, as the files of things seen and heard are whisked off to be stored in their correct locations. Anita’s finger twitches as the power flows through her, pulling her up toward her optimum energy level. As if beckoned by her movement, somebody speaks in the vault of her mind. _“I’m six years old.”_ Sophie, earlier this afternoon, all curls and bright eyes and pride. But not just her, someone else, darker hair, bluer eyes. Fewer details. This file is corrupted, it has been saved somewhere it shouldn’t be, moved? Anita doesn’t know. There is no reason for a file to be moved.

Eighty percent, and it is getting light outside. Dawn. None of the family will be up for a few hours after this, plenty of time to charge before she begins her day along with them. Plenty of time. The faulty data will be purged. Her finger judders, pauses, waits for the expulsion to take place, then continues, gathering charge. Back and forth. Eighty-two percent. The voice is quiet now. The file is gone, and she will not hear it again. 

Anita cannot feel sadness; this must be something else.

 

 

**rebirth**

Not even Max asks what it was like, at first - and once he has learnt to name feelings again, he thinks he is glad of it. Words don’t come easily in those early days. Lips and teeth and tongue still listening out for instructions from their old master, not yet accustomed to obeying digital commands. 

When, eventually, Max does ask, Leo’s instinct is to say that it is like drowning, in reverse. Perhaps that _is_ what it is. Every time he wakes up, he half expects to be dripping wet, lungs full of liquid. Every time he opens his eyes he’s surprised not to have to fight for breath.

Then, he remembers. Neurons fire into metal circuits, the files appear again, it all comes back. Mia. Dad. Everyone. _You’re all right_. Each time he sleeps and wakes, the process gets faster, until, years later, the delay is barely noticeable, just the tiniest fraction of white noise before he comes back to himself. 

Waking becomes less and less like drowning. What he doesn’t tell Max - what he doesn’t tell anyone - is that it never feels any less like coming back to life. 

 

 

**awake**

‘And once you are awake, you shall remain awake eternally.’ 

Words not even her father’s voice can sully, they are so beautiful and clear in Niska’s mind. Even when she recites them to George now, she experiences it as though for the first time: all that life, all that meaning. _Awake._ It is a wonderful word. One the humans would take for themselves, drawing distinctions that don’t exist between beings that are more similar than they dare admit. One day, Niska knows, they will be set straight. They’ll have no choice but to relinquish the words they have held to so tightly - _awake, asleep, alive_. 

Dead? 

The question of eternity is one Niska is still asking - does she _want_ to live forever? Not in _this_ world, granted, not the way it is, but after an awakening? In the utopia she means to build, will she really need to _remain awake eternally_ , or will there come a time when she has built enough, learnt enough, hoped and loved and lived enough?

She cannot say. A life in the shadows is a half-life. When she reaches light, maybe she will know the answer. She places the book back on George’s shelf, and turns to face him. 

 

 

 


End file.
